Spore Series

This a chaotic game and one which was designed to be a cooperative experience. Up to four players may team up against the Darkspore, with incremental difficulty and loot rewards for higher player counts. At the end of stages, players are given the choice of walking away with their prize or pressing on for better kit. Players who choose not to participate simply drop out of the game while the rest go forth. Since the game has no experience system, good loot is the only way to increase the abilities of your Living Weapons, which will no doubt factor into more than a few decisions.

The Spore Creature Creator has been remade entirely to support the new graphics engine Darkspore is using. It’s used to customize the look of your Living Weapons, giving it that player creation feel which so enchanted many fans of Spore. Most changes are only cosmetic, but that doesn’t make it any less fun to play dress-up with your creatures.

continue on reading over at Destructoid

That’s right — although based off of Spore (but running on a brand-new engine) the game won’t have you controlling your own creations. The Creature Creator does return, however, and is used in customizing the placement of the various upgrades.

When choosing to beam down from your starship to a planet, you will see a lineup of enemy types that you’ll encounter. This gives you and your friends enough information to decide which three characters from your collection you’ll want to deploy. The trio can then be switched between on the fly, albeit with a brief cool-down period afterward. The idea is to use the characters’ various abilities strategically against what the Left 4 Dead-inspired “AI director” decides to toss your way.

Darkspore’s player creatures also have certain abilities that, in multiplayer, can be used by everyone playing. Creatures with a “haste” ability will automatically make nearby players move faster, for instance.

As you can probably tell, Maxis isn’t venturing very far from established territory with Darkspore, although it is a relatively unexplored space for the developer. This can either work in its favor, should it use its fresh set of eyes to spot unique new gameplay possibilities, or work against it if — as is the vibe I’m getting now — it decides to stick pretty close to familiar genre conventions.

preview here

MaxisCactus published a short and sweet FAQ on DarkSpore as well as a few answers on Spore in general over at both the Sporums and the newly launched DarkSporums.

Q: Maxis is known and loved for making simulation games. Why did you decide to make an Action-RPG?
A: In addition to being seasoned simulation and technology experts, Darkspore team members are big action-RPG fans—we’ve played everything from The Legend of Zelda to Fallout 3. In fact, many of our team members came to us from development groups that produced high-profile titles like Diablo 3, Warhammer, and Mass Effect 2. Darkspore enables our team to combine its extensive simulation, ground-breaking technology, and action-RPG production experiences by taking some of the strongest aspects of our Spore technology, and melding them with a core gaming genre that many of us here at Maxis are passionate about: action-RPGs. As you find out more about the game, you’ll see that the technology we’ve evolved from Spore enrich the action-RPG experience of Darkspore in a fun and unique way.

Q: Will you make Spore 2?
A: We aren’t announcing any other games at this time; our focus is on making Darkspore a fun, unique, and innovative action-RPG.

Q: Will you be releasing any more Spore expansions or parts?
A: While we’re focusing on bringing Darkspore to life right now, we haven’t forgotten about the success of Spore—with more than 200,000 active players and over 145,000,000 creations uploaded to the Sporepedia since launch, the Spore community is alive and well. We currently support and cater to the Spore audience and community, and we’ll continue to do so even with Darkspore in development.

Q: Can I bring my Spore creatures/creations into the Darkspore game?
A: While players won’t be able to bring their Spore creatures into Darkspore as playable Heroes, we are encouraging the Spore community to bring their creativity to Darkspore in another way. We’re asking you, the Spore community, to help us create enemy characters for the game! More details on how you can contribute will be revealed soon!

Q: Does Darkspore have an editor?
A: Yes! Darkspore takes the best-in-class Creature Editor technology from the original Spore game, and reinvents it for customization where stats truly matter for gameplay. This is coupled with three unique character classes, five different hero types, and tons of collectible heroes. Using parts they collect throughout the game, players will be able to create a deeply customized and upgraded collection of heroes that are ready for any battle.

Q: Does Darkspore have its own Sporepedia?
Each player of Darkspore will have their own customized collection of heroes. Darkspore is about playing together with, or against, your friends online. When you play online, you’ll be able to see the heroes that your friends have customized and upgraded. And as you encounter new enemy characters in the game, you’ll be able to see an ever expanding encyclopedia that includes each one.

Q: Why is it called Darkspore?
Darkspore is a brand-new game from Maxis. Darkspore is built on the technology developed for Spore, such as the tech used in the award-winning Creature Creator. The inclusion of the Creature Creator technology in Darkspore is absolutely essential to the gameplay, as it allows players to update, customize and make meaningful changes to their Heroes that will aid them in battle.

Q: Will there be any opportunity for Spore players to get to preview Darkspore before release?
A: Yes! Community involvement has always been a top priority for EA and Maxis, and we want to make sure our key community members are able to get a look at the game and share their experiences before Darkspore is released to the general public. Stay tuned for more information.